Online PF transfer for workers under private trusts soon

Employees covered under private PF trusts, which manage retirement fund of their workers themselves, will be able to transfer their PF accounts online from next month.

There are about 2,750 private Provident Fund (PF) trusts which themselves manage the account of their workers.

The information services wing of the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is working on such mechanism to enable transfer of PF accounts from a private PF trust to an unexempted firm and vice-versa. The facility could be launched in four to six weeks.

This was revealed by the head of the information services wing to the Central Provident Fund Commissioner (CPFC) K K Jalan in a recent meeting of zonal commissioners earlier this month.

"CPFC also directed that mechanism be worked out to extend online transfer claim portal (OTCP) to handle transfer of claims from un-exempt to exempt establishments (PF trust) and vice versa. Additional Central Commissioner (Information Services) informed CPFC that Information Services Division is working on the same and it shall be launched within 4 to 6

weeks," states minutes of the meeting of zonal commissioners.

The online transfer of PF claims facility has been made available after the EPFO launched its online transfer claim portal (OTCP) on October 2, this year.

At present this facility is available to workers of firms which do not have their PF trusts and manage their employees' accounts with their respective regional fund commissioners.

The facility of online transfer of provident fund accounts is aimed at reducing the work load of the body substantially as over 13 lakh applicants files such claims every year.

During 2012-13, the EPFO settled 107.62 lakh claims, 88 per cent of which were processed within 30 days, as prescribed by the body's citizen charter.

The EPFO expects 1.2 crore claims in 2013-14, including around 13 lakh PF transfer claims, largely from tech-savvy companies from sectors like IT.